Hooked Again: Revisiting the Legacy of “I Know What You Did Last Summer”

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the 1997 original movie

Before the reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer slashes its way onto screens on July 18th, let’s rewind to the mid-1990s — a time of landlines, low-rise jeans, and uninspired, formulaic follow-ups featuring familiar horror faces. Upon its release in October 1997, I Know What You Did Last Summer wasn’t just a hit; it was a pop-culture explosion that launched the careers of a new generation of Teen Dreams and raised the bar for horror for decades to come. Looking back on its success and influence, it’s easy to see why the original still haunts us nearly thirty years later.

If you were a moviegoer searching for a scare before the release of Scream in December 1996, you’d likely have been out of luck. With few exceptions, like Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Interview with the Vampire (1994), the first half of the decade offered little that could truly terrify audiences. Then came Scream, and everything changed. Kevin Williamson’s razor-sharp screenplay breathed new life into the genre, striking a perfect balance between satire and suspense. Suddenly, audiences were turning their attention back to horror. Williamson’s refreshing writing style, paired with the direction of horror master Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street), took the culture by storm and reminded viewers that the genre could be smart, stylish, and genuinely scary.

Following the box office success of Scream, Williamson was approached to pen a new screenplay based on Lois Duncan’s 1973 novel, I Know What You Did Last Summer. The story follows four teens who, after a night of drunken celebration, accidentally run over a man and dump his body in an attempt to hide their crime. One year later, the friends become victims of a serial stalker with deadly designs and a fisherman’s aesthetic, a look that, it turns out, lends itself exceedingly well to the horror genre. Williamson’s approach to the screenplay for I Know What You Did Last Summer (IKWYDLS) was a contrast from the sharp-tongued, self-referential script of Scream, and he focused more on reworking the novel’s central plot to resemble an 1980s era slasher à la Prom Night and The House on Sorority Row. The result was a dark, ominously-toned film that was imbued with suspense and, not only played on audiences pre-existing fears of urban legends with its truly terrifying premise, but subverted expectations of the “final girl” trope (who can forget Sarah Michelle Gellar’s iconic, prolonged chase scene in which we’re convinced she’ll escape the hook-handed maniac, only to be struck down unceremoniously behind a stack of spare tires mere feet away from salvation?)

Thanks to Williamson’s fresh approach to the novel’s screenplay and the film’s charismatic young cast, IKWYDLS  was a commercial success, holding the number one spot at the box office for three consecutive weeks. Hollywood noticed. Alongside the groundbreaking success of Scream, IKWYDLS helped usher in a new era of teen slashers: smart, stylish, and self-aware. Studios rushed to capture the same magic, releasing a wave of horror films aimed squarely at a young, pop culture-savvy audience. By the end of 1997, Scream 2 hit theaters, followed by The Faculty, Urban Legend, Disturbing Behavior, and the anxiously anticipated sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, in 1998. Additionally, the success of Duncan’s novel adaptation prompted a mainstream Hollywood trend of turning classic written works into teen movies, giving us hits like She’s All That (Pygmalion), 10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew), and Cruel Intentions (Dangerous Liaisons), most of which featured the stars of I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Teen horror was back in style and bankable. The stars of IKWYDLS, once destined for notoriety only within a niche market, became mainstream icons. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Ryan Phillippe graced the covers of Teen People, Seventeen, and J-14, hosted TRL, sported milk mustaches for the legendary 90’s “Got Milk?” ad campaign, and quickly booked roles in romantic comedies, dramas, and TV shows beyond the horror genre. This wasn’t just a genre revival; it was a cultural reset. The blend of horror and teen celebrity created a lasting blueprint for films like Final Destination, Mean Girls, and even TV series such as Pretty Little Liars, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Riverdale, all of which owe a stylistic debt to the glossy, angst-filled world these late-’90s slashers carved out. The ripple effect of this moment is still visible today in the resurgence of nostalgic horror and the continued appeal of teen-centric thrillers that blend scares with star power.

And just as eager as audiences were to consume the new crop of mainstream teen horror were the audiences looking to revel in poking fun at the genre’s clichés. The appetite for satire was sated in July 2000, when moviegoers were treated to the first installment of the Scary Movie franchise, a bold, irreverent comedy largely focused on parodying Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Audiences flocked to theaters for the film’s over-the-top humor and shamelessly exaggerated takes on familiar horror tropes. Scary Movie was a box-office sensation. With a modest budget of just $19 million, Scary Movie raked in nearly $300 million worldwide, proving that parody could be just as commercially viable as the genres it spoofed. And its success didn’t stop at the box office – it rippled through Hollywood, launching a franchise that would go on to include five sequels and cementing the film’s status as a cultural touchstone. More broadly, it revitalized and expanded the parody sub-genre, inspiring a slew of similar teen-oriented comedies that blended slapstick, satire, and pop culture references. In doing so, Scary Movie not only lampooned teen horror, it became an iconic part of its legacy.

Where would we be today without I Know What You Did Last Summer? Would we have experienced the glorious revival of smart, teen-centric media that shaped a generation, from film to television? Could we truly imagine our screens, and our lives, without shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Xena: Warrior Princess, and iconic cult classics like Can’t Hardly Wait, Jawbreaker, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and countless others? I’d argue that we’d have been robbed of a cultural era that continues to echo through the minds of millennials everywhere. I cannot count how many times I’ve internally screamed, “What are you waiting for, huh? What are you waiting for?!” every time someone in my life takes a beat too long to decide what to order at dinner with friends.

So let’s take a moment to honor the debt we owe to Kevin Williamson and I Know What You Did Last Summer — a cornerstone of ‘90s teen horror that helped shape pop culture as we know it. And as the countdown begins for its much-anticipated reboot, hitting theaters on July 18th, let’s brace ourselves for a new generation to be hooked, providing thrills, chills, and quotable moments to haunt us all over again.

Featured image:  Jennifer Love Hewitt in “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.